Walking out of the [Antenna], Tian Xing Jian went to find Thoriko.
He passed the document in his hand to him before asking, “Look at this piece of information. What do you know of the Myth Legion?”
Thoriko read through the electronic document seriously and was shocked at its contents. “20 battalion of commandos died in battle?!” He frowned before continuing, “Myth Legion. I’ve heard of it frequently in the past, though they were all rumors. After the war had started, he found that the enemy’s special forces weren’t particularly formidable like the rumors had reputed them to be, so we thought that this Myth Legion was just an unfounded rumor. But who would have thought that they are so formidable! If they are truly as what the rumors claim, then I think we’re in big trouble this time.”
Tian Xing Jian said, “Tell me some of these rumors. According to the intelligence report, this Legion is more than meets the eyes.”
Thoriko laughed bitterly. “Actually, the precursor to this supposed Myth Legion was merely a Logistic Armored Transport Battalion. Several hundred years ago, under the command of a war-maniac battalion commander, this battalion of soldiers underwent a training even tougher than what the commandos went through. Without having any state-of-the-art equipment, they would have to think of a way to steal them from the enemies. After stealing it, they would modify it in accordance to their own needs, thus they will always be present in most of the occurring battles. After the completion of this activity, the Logistic Transport becomes some sort of vanguard in battles. We don’t really see this often, but under the command of that monster battalion commander, all the soldiers have finally battled and obtained this reputation they have today. They won all 100 battles they participated in. Other than annihilating their enemies, they also performed assassinations, ambushes, destruction, poison, public relations, and espionage. There is practically nothing they could not do. In the past, there were several commandos that were trapped within an enemy camp, and without the assistance of their air forces, they had saved them and brought them out of the camp. The moment these commandos were saved, the very first thing they would do was to apply to join this Logistic Transport Battalion. After joining, as their achievements grew, their reputations also became renowned. Compared with the other commando battalions, this Logistic Transport battalion is just like a plaything to them. The Gyaca Woods Army decided to turn this Logistic Transport battalion into their backbone, forming a unique group of soldiers. Because their emergence and development were similar to some fairy tales, they were termed as the Myth special forces. They only answer to the Empire’s royal family. Several hundred years later, this unique group actually developed into a commando division and called themselves Myth Legion. In reality, for such a huge investment to be placed in a commando division, it was a huge waste; however, their use in battle was quite different and not restricted like the commandos that usually battled as platoons. This division can annihilate an enemy that outnumbered them during battle, and they are excellent in both offense and defense. Even though it has always puzzled many, there are rumors about how energy cannons and missiles are ineffective against their Battle Mechas. All their battling techniques are similar to how private mechas fight in close combat.”
The more Tian Xing Jian listened, the more he was startled. This Empire’s special forces had already transcended his imaginations — a Logistic Armored Transport battalion could turn themselves into a legion that answered only to the Gyaca Woods Empire royal family, and the several hundred years of battle had not reduced their reputation but instead allowed it to grow stronger before finally becoming a division. Not only were they proficient in all types of war tactics, they were also good in both offense and defense. Most importantly, their Battle Mecha fighting techniques had overturned the entire history of Battle Mecha battles. So that’s the reason behind the prototype mecha in Milan’s lab and the computers in the research lab that kept all sorts of information pertaining to the advanced Battle Mechas that were moving towards close combat — absolute defense and control-type mechas.
Thoriko felt his heart becoming heavy. “In the hundred years of war, there has never been a force which could annihilate the enemies so thoroughly. I’m afraid that in the entire human history, there would only be a single group that could do it even amongst those highly developed nations. This group of soldiers have been established over and over again in those highly difficult wars, thus it could be said that this division that is entirely loyal to the Gyaca Woods Empire’s royal family and ensures that the royal family continues to maintain and rule the entire Empire. Over the several hundred years, all of the countless rebellions have ultimately been resolved by this division of soldiers. They are cruel to both their enemies and their own comrades. They are an innate group of battle machines.”
If that was the case, then what was the purpose for them to appear here? Tian Xing Jian entered his own Battle Mecha as he began flipping through the map of Miracolo Planet that showed the regions of intertwining battles between the two nations before starting to think. This group had definitely been dispatched out here; however, it was not just for the sake of surrounding the assaulting Federation commandos who went behind the enemy lines. Furthermore, they did not know beforehand that the Federation had decided to conduct this mission suddenly. Since that was the case, they must have some other reasons.
But what was it? Right now, all those cities that had been surrounded had a chance of possibly being this group’s target. Their addition could rapidly resolve the battle; however, there were no signs of where they might attack. So where exactly would their next target be?
This question was similarly causing huge headaches in the Federation forward command center. Right now, Operation Lightning had started and could not be stopped. For the sake of evading the assault of the Empire’s special forces, the Federation had dispatched even more manpower to support the defense of the capital, Jialipalan. This might possibly be one of the targets to be assaulted by the enemies.
During the next few days, the group traveling underground continued without stop. But as they got closer to the mountainous region in the east, the ground conditions became more complex before Tian Xing Jian finally ordered for the digging to be stopped when they dug close into a public tunnel. There was no purpose for them to continue digging onwards. Using Tian Xing Jian’s Logic, he tried to understand the ground conditions of their location before deciding that they would wait here. This area should be relatively safer than others. If given a choice, he would like to get a reply from the air force’s transport fleet.
[Antenna] could still receive the information sent by Rashid. The enemy had reorganized their positions, causing Operation Lightning to enter a state of stalemate. After that, under the combination from the assaults from the air and the rapid penetration of the group troops, the enemy’s defense lines were broken in several places, forming a few huge open holes. The army composed of six united groups scattered towards the west and continued their pursuit one after another, giving no time for the Imperial Army to reorganize their defense lines. The war situation finally started to move. Their attacks had opened a path towards the two to three cities under the enemy’s control. The Federation Army continued in their unsteady offense towards the perimeters of three cities. The Imperial soldiers within these surrounded cities had long retreated. Otherwise, they would enter a situation of being surrounded entirely by the Federation Army.
Seeing this “fallen-tree” kind of military situation, Tian Xing Jian had an ominous feeling. Their actions were too smooth this time around. Nobody would truly believe this. When had the enemy become so weak? Unless after losing their control of air, the Gyaca Woods Imperial Army could not be compared to the Federation’s defense team in the previous battles? Even though they had reorganized their defense a few times, from Tian Xing Jian’s perspective, why did this seem like a tactic where they were just luring the Federation deeper into their lines?
Tian Xing Jian skipped sleep and meals so as to continue analyzing the possibilities on his Battle Mecha’s computer. Seeing how engrossed he was, Mei Duo and Ni Ya had decided not to come and disturb him. The countless deductions continued on as Tian Xing Jian could only arrive at the conclusion that the Imperial Army’s manpower was not enough and had no way of obstructing the progress of the Federation. He, who should let out a heave of relief, could only feel an ominous feeling towards the ever-strengthening Federation Army’s continued offense.
Six days later when he received information regarding the statistics from the war from Rashid, who had reached a region controlled by the Federation, he finally understood the reason. The main reason had appeared on the losses of the Imperial Army. Even though the Federation was winning most battles and the enemy’s losses seemed huge, they had not yet reached the sort of situation where they could no longer obstruct the Federation and had to retreat. Thinking back to the battle of the space fleets, the Empire’s space fleets had also similarly not been annihilated by the Federation fleets; instead, they “retreated in defeat” after the battles. There was also no supposed annihilation within the Gyaca Woods Imperial Army in the battle over the control within the atmosphere, resulting in the biggest losses of the war to be the commandos who entered the enemy's’ backline.
Tian Xing Jian recalibrated his analysis regarding the enemy’s space fleets, atmospheric fighter aircrafts, ground troops, and the Myth Legion into the calculator before continuing with his deduction about the battle. During the calculation, it seemed as if this military power, which was unable to obtain a huge advantage over the Federation, did not have a chance of turning the game around, especially since they have been continuously losing battles. For them to deploy their military strength and recover from this condition was truly very difficult. On the map, the scattered military troops did not show possible signs of being able to ambush the Federation as well. However, when Tian Xing Jian started deducing what might happen after the enemy troops in the surrounding cities began to retreat, he suddenly discovered that as the Federation continued saving those fragmented soldiers in the cities, the enemies that initially held the territory west of Cato City, continued in its transformation of combat power. This qualitative change was slow and delayed and was small and hard to see as well, but in reality, their plans and procedures were clearly planned. When the Federation’s main forces underwent a situation of getting suppressed by the powerful retaliation of the enemy, Tian Xing Jian placed the Myth Legion in a certain location as cold sweat immediately formed on his back — at about 200 km west of Cato City at the Cato canyon, there was a natural and outstanding defensive position.
As long as they were able to destroy the airport on the peak of the cannon before barricading themselves into a missile silo, the air passage that was supposedly opened by the Federation air force would be broken into two. The enemy air force would be able to use this canyon as their main headquarters, obtaining an advantage of being able to destroy any transport ships within a region 300 km in radius around it. The logistic department would also be forced to take a roundabout road out of this 300 km region towards the deep mountains with a narrow and winding passage. Finally, the 31 divisions of Federation military power would just become a dog that tried its utmost to bite the tail of a rabbit. He realized this objective did not require the combat power of space fleets and the atmospheric fighter aircraft to be stronger than that of the Federation Army. In a situation of stalemate, as long as they concentrate their forces, they would be able to achieve this within 24 hours. Adding on an exquisite assault from the air, the Federation would once again enter a situation of destruction.
Almost instantaneously, Tian Xing Jian jumped out and rushed towards the [Antenna]. He ordered for this message to be passed onto Rashid before asking him to pass on this deduction to the forward command. As the seconds ticked by, other than the correspondence who was sweating from the news, the entire underground passage was totally silent.
*********
Deducing the outcome of battle was an extremely intricate skill. Even computers would not be able to completely calculate all the possible results that might happen. Maybe, there would be some small incident that would change the entire outcome of the war. Using the same military power and deployment, the same situation, the same intelligence map, and the same system for deduction, different people of different skills would be able to attain a completely different deduction of what might happen.
Ever since the ancient era on Earth when sandbox simulations were invented, deduction became one of the methods that both nations fighting the war must have, as this determined the final battle plans. As the space era arrived, many different styles of deduction emerged. The reason for why so many different types of deduction appeared might be largely attributed to the emergence of space wars that were entirely different from the ancient era on Earth. The battle tactics and environment were some of the factors affecting it. Still, one thing still held true even since ancient times — one could not solely rely on deductions, as it would never be possible to calculate certain events that might happen on chance.
In order to resolve this conundrum, countless deduction professionals had thought of many different methods during wars. They used all sorts of methods to try and solve the problem of chance that could affect the entire outcome of the war. Several styles of deduction were fond of using micro-commanding to reduce the possibilities of chance events. These styles could carefully take into account aspects like the environment, weaponry, and time before giving a set of plans to proceed thereafter. However, the amount of calculation required for this was immense and the plans the soldiers had to follow were extremely complicated, thus this sort of deduction would usually be used on battles of the size of a regiment and smaller army groups. There were also some deduction styles that took into account the probability of chance events happening and how large of an effect it would bring to the final outcome of the battle. If the chance was low and the influence was small, then it would be ignored; however, if it was huge, then the entire battle plan would have to be changed. There were also several styles that ignored these chance events entirely. For them, they would depend on an enormous advantage and a well-prepared military force to resolve any chance events that might happen during battles. Ultimately, there would not be a battle plan that was entirely perfect and neither would a nation be able to hold onto their advantage over their enemies forever.
War could be considered a strategic board game between two or more opponents. It was also the reason for the continuation of a political regime. Not only did it influence the requirements for governance, it also affected international affairs, the population’s sentiments, the economy, technology, military powers, and many other different related fields, making it a truly complicated matter. More importantly, deduction was not a single-sided affair. When one’s side was conducting deduction and changing the military plans and deployment, the other side would similarly be doing the same thing and perhaps even do it better in view of better intelligence or skill.
If the deduction of the battle was not done right, then the military plans would not be well-planned as well. The outcome would just be like a chess game where your entire path was calculated by your opponent, reaching a situation known by many as “leading you along to be beaten”.
In military institutions, the module on deduction occupied a large percentage of the student’s final results. Those who had talent in deduction would often be recommended to join a high-ranking military command team as an intern. When they graduated, they would immediately be assigned to the unit where they interned at, becoming a renowned commanding officer or a staff officer who creates the entire battle plan.
There was never a single style nor a talent in deduction who would hold onto one’s chest and guarantee that his or her deduction was certainly accurate. An ignorant person knows no fear. Fatty, who was underground, could affirm his deduction was accurate. He knew that according to the statistics report and the deductions he simulated over a thousand times, he could determine the enemy’s movement with an accuracy of 99.75%. And against the enemy’s battle plans, movement, degree of offensive and defensive prowess, and their area of activity, Fatty could deduce them with an accuracy of about 90%.
This style of deduction that originated from the easterners of ancient Earth included not only the philosophy of Sun Tze’s Art of War but also included the classics of I Ching as well. Its calculation methods were unique and different from many others. As such, other than the fatty, there was practically no one who was interested towards this set of things. In the current era where technology was advanced, things that seemingly could not be touched, like reading fortune to deduce the outcome of a battle, was a joke to many. Fatty originally did not believe in it; however, after seeing how complex the system was and after fully understanding it, it would be a waste of his effort if he did not use it at least in deductions. The conclusion to more than a thousands time of repeated outcome deduction proved that this set of deduction methods was truly way better than many of today’s scientific deduction styles. Thus, this calculation that incorporated the world and basis of I Ching’s philosophy to deduce the outcome of a battle made Fatty fully enthusiastic.
This set of deduction methods even had a solution to the chance events that could not fully be comprehended. This strange method was enough to make Fatty slap the table and shower it with praise. In its philosophy of the treatment toward chance events, it could not entirely solve these events and neither could it resolve individual battle situations; instead, it would utilize all these different events and situations to formulate an overall picture before creating small advantages for the deducer using small teams at an appropriate time and location so as to reduce the problems caused by chance events on the overall war situation. Furthermore, the back-up plan it would calculate would usually be quite perfect. This set of deduction methods had only one sentence in the core of its philosophy — Seize the opportunity whenever one was stuck at a pivotal point.
Regardless of how many of the occurring events changed and transformed, as long as one grabbed the head of it, one would be able to take the initiative to obtain an advantage.
This philosophy implied that in order for one to fully make use of the science behind deciding on the next course of action when the war situation changed, one has to be flexible — one must not be dead set on a single, predetermined battle plan. Right now, the pivotal location lied at Cato Canyon.
Fatty was fully confident of his own deduction, but would the forward command team trust him? This operation was planned and directed by the Federation Supreme Headquarters. The forward command team situated at Jialipalan was merely carrying out these plans. So the biggest issue now was whether they would see the importance of this deduction, and whether they would believe the deduction made by a special scouts first lieutenant.
Several hours passed. The correspondence soldier, with a back covered in sweat, came down from the Albert-encrypted communication system before reporting to Tian Xing Jian that Rashid had no reply for him. Apparently, their point-to-point communication system had lost connection.
Tian Xing Jian felt that this world was truly inconceivable. The more afraid you were that something might happen and the more you wish for it to not happen, the more likely it would happen.
If he could not link-up with Rashid, then using the [Antenna] to directly communicate with the Federation would possibly expose their position. If their position was exposed, due to their lack of manoeuvrability, surviving behind the enemy lines with their Battle Mechas would truly be harder than even transcending the heavens.
“Keep trying. You must establish a connection regardless. Even if you can’t link up with them, you must still do it,” Tian Xing Jian gave a preposterous order.
“Yes!” The communications soldier acknowledged. Even though this order was truly preposterous, it was actually quite common in the army.
However, the soldier felt kind of weird. “Is there anything that this vice company commander does not know how to do? He could even use the broken computer to deduce an outcome before hurriedly asking me to forward it to the forward command team as if it would be the apocalypse if it doesn’t reach them in time. How accurate is this? Are those planning officers and battle planners vegetarians ?”
This line of thoughts could naturally be seen from his expression. This communications soldier carried out the orders, though as he sat in front of the Albert-encrypted communications system, he had shriveled his mouth towards the other people within the same Battle Mecha as him.
Naturally, Tian Xing Jian had seen it. He could only bitterly smile at that. If he pushed all these people to the boundary of death with his deduction that could not be proven, nobody would really agree with it. If the deduction was accurate, then it was fine. But if it wasn’t, then he would be the murderer that resulted in the deaths of these several hundreds of people. Furthermore, deep within his heart, Fatty still treated his own life as the most precious one amongst others if it came down to a last resort.
But what if the deduction was true? By the point in time when the Federation Army reached their location and saved them, the enemies would certainly have carried out their battle plans. By then, trying to escape would merely be just an empty thought.
When basing a decision that is related to one’s own survival on a deduction that might not be accurate, anyone would know what the final decision would be even if they used their butt to think. This was a natural human instinct.
Fortunately, from the map of the military’s situation, it was not the point in time when the Imperial Army would carry out their plans. After all, the Federation Army was still a part of the branches on this big tree-like route of march. There were still quite few pieces of branches fanning outwards, and the military power was still quite concentrated.
Thus, there was still time for a connection to be established. Tian Xing Jian could only solemnly console himself.
After a day, no connection was established. From how serious the soldiers from the special scouts company were acting, everyone knew something was amiss. The atmosphere started to become heavier.
“There was still time,” Tian Xing Jian kept telling himself in his heart. He must persist until the very end.
Another day passed. According to his deduction, the Federation military power on the main battlefield had started fanning out into a more dangerous state. They still did not know that the seemingly defeated and retreating Imperial Army had started their operation to regroup.
Tian Xing Jian could not sit still any longer. He could not look at how the plans were erupting in front of his eyes. He truly wanted to rush out and use [Antenna] to directly establish a connection to the forward command center. But within his heart, a voice asked, “What if this deduction of yours is wrong?”
If it was wrong, he would be sending the several hundreds of people next to him to their deaths. Drive the [Antenna] out? Without the [Antenna], this platoon of Battle Mecha soldiers would similarly be sent to their deaths.
And what if he was wrong?
Tian Xing Jian was in a dilemma.
“First lieutenant, can I ask you a question?” a voice sounded beside his ears.
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